08 May Workbook

Digital Journalism 2 assignment:

March 19^th:

• Potential idea to do with trade within Europe- motivation from an article on BBC news about the stockpiling of Airbus parts in preparation for the trade interruptions as part of the Brexit deal.
• Immigration within Europe.

 

March 22^nd:

• EU Budget contributions- how much does each country pay? (infographic)
• Article- Who, what, when, where and why? Where does the money come from, where does it go, Brexit and why some countries contribute more but doesn’t actually mean they are financially stable.

Potential article headlines:

• EU contributions by member states: what you need to know
• The EU Budget: Who, What, When, Where, Why?
• EU Budget: What you should know
• ‘ ‘What you need to know

 

Additional sources:

• CNBC– Here’s how important the UK is to the European Union (published March 27^th2017)

 

• Exit from the EU means that one of the fundamental economic blocs is being taken from the EU budget.

 

• What will the EU do in order to deal with the economic loss- UK being one of the main budget contributors.

 

• 2014- Germany, France, Italy and the UK.

 

 

• The Guardian online– EU budget: how much does each country pay and where does it get spent?

 

• Annual budget of over €129bn.

 

• €118.4bn is spent inside the EU- the rest goes to aid and development across the community:

 

1. Administration:Running the EU in each member country.
2. The EU as a global partner:International aid/ activity outside the EU.
3. Citizenship, Freedom, Security and Justice:Asylum, education and culture.
4. Preservation and management of natural resources:Common agricultural policy, environment and fishing.
5. Cohesion for growth and employment:Helping the poorer regions of Europe.
6. Competitiveness for growth and employment: Economic growth grants to small businesses, science and research.

 

• BBC News Channel- EU budget

1. In 2007, five countries – Germany, France, Italy, the UK, and Spain – contributed nearly half of the budget.
2. In fact, Germany alone – Europe’s largest economy – paid more than the 19 lowest-paying member states combined.
3. Each country’s payment is divided into three parts: a fixed percentage of gross national income (GNI), customs duties collected on behalf of the EU (known as “traditional own resources”) and a percentage of VAT income.
4. The GNI-based contribution is the largest part of each country’s payment and is set each year by the EU to balance the budget.
5. There is one other important part of the revenue calculations: the UK rebate, which returns to the UK two-thirds of its payments.
6. This rebate is paid for by the other 26 countries as a fixed amount of their gross national income.

 

Datasets used:

1. International trade of the EU, the euro area and the member states by SITC product group.
2. 3. : European Commission’s Financial Report 2016

   €155,004.20 billion for 2016

    

   Member state:	Amount contributed to EU budget:
   Belgium	€3.61 billion
   Bulgaria	€382 million
   Czech Republic	€1.36 billion
   Denmark	€2.20 billion
   Germany	€23.27 billion
   Estonia	€183 million
   Ireland	€1.67 billion
   Greece	€1.51 billion
   Spain	€9.56 billion
   France	€19.48 billion
   Croatia	€391 million
   Italy	€13.94 billion
   Cyprus	€152 million
   Latvia	€218 million
   Lithuania	€319 million
   Luxembourg	€311 million
   Hungary	€924 million
   Malta	€81 million
   Netherlands	€4.34 billion
   Austria	€2.76 billion
   Poland	€3.55 billion
   Portugal	€1.59 billion
   Romania	€1.37 billion
   Slovenia	€340 million
   Slovakia	€646 million
   Finland	€1.83 billion
   Sweden	€3.31 billion
   United Kingdom	€12.76 billion

   I chose this dataset simply because it answers my topic of how much is paid to the EU budget and how much each member state contributes. I was able to build this data up most easily to the image that I had in my head when designing the infographic. It’s also very specific meaning that the data could be easily analysed.

   Story idea:

    

   An article with the intention of going beyond the stats- exploring the reasons why some countries pay so much more than others and where does the money go exactly.

    

   Taker pointers from the Guardian article following:

   1. Administration:Running the EU in each member country.
   2. The EU as a global partner:International aid/ activity outside the EU.
   3. Citizenship, Freedom, Security and Justice:Asylum, education and culture.
   4. Preservation and management of natural resources:Common agricultural policy, environment and fishing.
   5. Cohesion for growth and employment:Helping the poorer regions of Europe.
   6. Competitiveness for growth and employment: Economic growth grants to small businesses, science and research.

    

   Statistics released by the European commission, have shown that combined Germany, France, the UK and Italy bring in around 62% of the overall budget for the European Union; mainly from GNI based payments. Due to also being the biggest overall exporters and importers within the European Union, this is not unusual. However, after the Brexit vote that took place in the UK back in 2016 the real question is, where will the EU find the revenue after losing one of its fundamental economic blocs?

   Each member state offers funding from three sources: VAT based payments; GNI based payments and traditional own resources. This money then gets used in different ways which is split up into six different categories: Administration; The EU as a global partner; Citizenship, Freedom, Security and Justice; Preservation and managements of natural resources; Cohesion for Growth and Employment and competiviness for growth and employment. In times of crisis, such as the Refugee Crisisthat is an ongoing problem for many EU members the money from the budget is used in order to provide to those in need.

   The fact that some countries pay more than others is not a new pattern. In 2007, figures from the BBC showed that Germany alone paid more in contributions than all of the lowest paying 19 countries combined.

    

   Article final draft:

   The top five main contributors of the budget in 2016 were Germany, France, the UK, Italy and Spain. Although all twenty-eight-member states contributed to some extent in three different forms, why did some states contribute more than others and where did the money go?

   The 2016 E7U budgetmarked an achievement for the union in a variety of ways, in terms of the implementation of the budget.

   Seven million farmers received support through the aid of direct debits in 2016 and €150 million was found in order to compensate those affected by the milk crisis in 2016. 2 per cent of the €150 billion budget was also solely devoted to aid fighting climate change.

   In terms of humanitarian aid over 120 million people were given aid as a result of €2 million budget spread across eighty countries, mainly involving those who had been affected by the Syrian Refugee Crisis in 2016.

   Günther H Oettinger, who is in control of the budget and human resources has stated that “as the data demonstrates, the EU budget delivers concrete results, be it boosting research and innovation, supporting farmers, helping Europeans find jobs, supporting investment, fighting against climate change or providing humanitarian assistance across the world…This is real added value that only our common EU budget can bring”.

   The EU budget has the purpose of creating a convergence of all the economies found in Europe.

   With Spain and Italy being under the category of the top five contributing states in 2016, how have they become ‘countries in crisis’ by 2018?

   Italy remains the world’s tenth largest goods exporter but has lagged economically behind other leading EU member states. For Spain, whose goods and services are becoming cheaper to produce, it’s a completely different story. After the financial crisis, productivity fell dramatically in Italy whilst in Spain it maintained at a flatline, proving to make a lot of difference.

   With Britain being the third largest contributor to the EU budget in 2016, the question being asked is how will the gap be filled when they finally make their exit from the European Union? The UK is a fundamental economic bloc for the union which without it there could be huge implications unless a replacement funding source can be located.

   Some other member states have already stated that they would not be willing to pay more in order to compensate for the UK leaving.

   For the UK a huge percentage of its EU money is spent on regional development and agricultural purposes. On a wider scale EU funds are also used for anti-terrorism tactics, improve job opportunities and also to extend help to non-EU countries.

   Uncertainty that surrounds the issue is when the UK will finally stop contributing to the budget. Günther Oettinger, the German Commissioner had stated that as a result of Brexit, Germany and other member states “will have to step up their contributions”.

   Sigmar Gabriel, Germany’s foreign affair minister also mentioned to FAZ newspaper back in March 2017 that Germany should offer to pay more into the EU budget. This is significant in terms of the EU’s future, with Germany holding the power to create a big impact.

   The future is still unclear. Many states such as Denmark state they will still not pay more after Brexit and that the EU’s only option should be to make cuts, specifically to agriculture and structural funds.

   Final draft:

   • Change the arrows on the map to make it more recognisable as to where they are pointing.

    

   • Change some of the colours so that they stand out more.

    

    

   • Add a title to the chart and the bottom to avoid confusion as to why the data is
   • different on the map compared to the graph.